These mountains are the most heavily mineralized mountains I have ever seen. We were literally picking up big chunks of iron and copper oxide, boulders of obsidian and crystals. One hillside we huffed up was covered almost entirely in geodes, many of which were broken open and shimmering in the sunlight. The result of all of this was visually spectacular, with every colour you can imagine, deep hues of reds, yellows, oranges, greens, purples, blacks and whites all mixed together with pockets of northern boreal old growth and deep turquoise alpine lakes.

Without Tahltan consent, and against the clear wishes that our people have expressed, Fortune Minerals continues to press ahead with its plans to build the Arctos Anthracite open-pit coal mine on Mount Klappan in Tahltan territory. We will continue to work hard for our people and hope both the province and Fortune see that their current approach is not working, and the current path they are on is the wrong one.

Fortune's actions pose risks for not only their project, but also for development elsewhere in our territory. If our values and rights aren't protected and respected in critical areas such as the Sacred Headwaters, we will view the risks of development as far outweighing the benefits. Conflict could become the norm, not the exception.

Areas of Earth that have remained relatively free of industrial development have taken on a special significance. In Canada, they include awe-inspiring landscapes like the Sacred Headwaters in northwestern B.C. But the Sacred Headwaters is not protected under law. It remains at risk from a multitude of proposed mines, railways, transmission lines and other projects that will eviscerate the landscape if approved.

It is hard to express the beauty of this great expanse of wilderness. Situated in some of the most magnificent mountains and valleys on the alpine-arctic border, the Sacred Headwaters has truly earned its name.

This is not a story of Tibet or the Amazon. It is a story of my own backyard, a land known to the Tahltan people and all the First Nations of British Columbia as the Sacred Headwaters. Through time, isolation has been the area's saving grace; now this very isolation could be its doom.